The invention relates to a machine which is pulled or provided with a three-point attachment to a tractor for the harvesting of corn or similar stalk-like crops.
A known machine of this type (DE-AS 20 63 691) is designed as a single-row harvester and has a feeding and supplying device, arranged above a special cutting device, for transporting the crop to be chopped in and transversely to the direction of travel. The feeding and supplying device consists of three different parts each of which is driven separately. A conveying part, formed by an endlessly rotating chain or belt conveyor, which is driven and has driver elements, is guided by guide wheels. An additional endlessly rotating driven conveyor together with the first conveying part forms a feeding area which narrows towards the rear and opposite to the direction of travel of the machine and simultaneously ascends obliquely in an upward direction. Also a cross conveyor rotating around a horizontal axis above the depot area is obliquely inclined in a downward direction.
Because of its construction, this known machine can only receive one row of the standing crop during the chopping process, which already in and of itself limits the chopping performance. In this known machine, the crop is initially supplied in the direction of travel and then redirected and inclined transversely to the direction of travel. For this, three feeding and supplying devices with special drives and deflection and guide plates are required which are comparatively complicated to construct, thus making the manufacture correspondingly more expensive.
In addition, a harvester for stalk-like crops is known which has a feeding and supplying device and which consists of at least two chains, belts or the like, rotating on the same plane in a countercurrent direction, onto which an elastically deflectable belt is fastened, forming guide loops of the same length at equal distances. The corn stalks are grasped in an upright position, cut and delivered with their ends first to a continuing processing device without the danger that the corn stalks will get hooked onto the conveying parts which could result in a clogging of the device (DE-PS 15 07 187). In this known machine, the corn stalk is held in an already upright position and supplied to the continuing processing device.
However, an additional cutting device is required for the cutting of the corn stalks and the like. Furthermore, the feeding and supplying device can only receive the crop at one feeding point between the respective guide wheels and then convey it opposite to the direction of travel. This requires a special row arrangement of the crop to be harvested. Furthermore, a complete feeding and supplying apparatus with a prearranged cutting device is required, in the case of a multiple-row construction of the machine, for each row of crop which is to be harvested at the same time. In this case as well, the machine is relatively complicated from a construction and manufacturing standpoint. Since the machines are used by various companies, it is a disadvantage that only such crop can be chopped with the machine which is already located during the spring planting at a row distance which was adjusted to the machine.
Finally, a transportable chopper for straw and tuber harvests, in particular for rape, is known (DE-GM 77 13 772), which comprises a mowing device, a processing device in the form of a cutting and ejection blower with attached ejection pipe arranged transversely to the direction of travel of the tractor and a conveying device arranged between this, the conveying device consisting of a conveyor belt and a cross spiral conveyor.
The cross spiral conveyor is located in a conveyor housing which is partially formed as a cylindrical surface serving as a counter edge at the transfer point to the cutting and ejection blower. At the scoop wheel of the cutting and ejection blower there is a cutting knife which, together with the counter edge, forms the cutting device. Since this chopper has no slide-in roller or the like, it is not suitable for the harvesting of corn or similar stalk-like crops. However, if this cutting and ejection blower were to be provided with a cutting channel with slide-in rollers, the cutting and ejection blower would have to be of a large size in order to maintain adequate conveyor performance, that the counter edge of the cutting channel would be located considerably higher than the cutting point of the crop to be harvested on the ground. Therefore, it has to be connected to a feeding device conveying in an upward direction from the ground.
It is the object of the invention to provide a machine which is pulled or attached to a three-point attachment on a tractor for the harvesting of corn or similar stalk-like crops. The machine according to the present invention, in its entire working width, receives and subsequently chops the stalk-like crop, and thus operates independent of the row distances of the grown crop. Also the cutting and ejection blower is compact and small such that the counter edge of the cutting channel is located at or shortly above the cutting height of the crop.
In the machine according to the invention, the intended chopping machine is obtained by the special design and arrangement of the cross conveyor as the cutting and supplying device in front of the chopping and scoop wheels which are driven in a countercurrent fashion and which work together with a cutting channel and a joint counter edge, cutting the stalk-like crop growing in the field of the same height from the ground across the entire working width of the machine, and subsequently chopping and conveying it to a collection vehicle like, for example, an agricultural trailer. No special row distance of the crop is required since the stationary cutting knife for the cutting of the crop, arranged across the entire working width and transversely to the direction of travel of the machine, is permanently merged by crescent-shaped counter edge members on a continously rotating chain system which is endless and directed parallel to the ground so that there is always a cutting preparedness. However, in practice, there exists the possibility that a stalk divider and/or guide sheet delineates and divides the standing crop at the cutting area. The chain system, having a plurality of counter edge members, holding fingers and braces, receives the crop stalk, cut by the counter edge member above the cutting point, by the holding finger and brace associated with the counter edge member and carries the crop stalk, for example the way a standard bearer carries a standard, to a subsequent chopping machine. This is very small and compact because of the arrangement of two chopping and scoop wheels with their own blower housings and joint cutting channel in a direction perpendicular to the plane of travel. The construction height corresponds approximately to half the construction height of a traditional chopping blower with the same chopping and conveying performance. In two chopping and scoop wheels, the maximum stresses of the drive can be lowered, since there is a consecutive cut in the cutting channel so that always only one chopping knife of a chopping and scoop wheel cuts on the counter edges. In order to achieve the peripheral speed of a large chopping and scoop wheel, the rotational speed can be increased when arranging two smaller chopping and scoop wheels so that the conveying performance is adjusted and the cutting sequence for a very short chopping of the crop can be increased.
Other features which are considered characteristic of the invention are set forth in the appended claims.
Although the invention is illustrated and described in relationship to specific embodiments, it is nevertheless not intended to be limited to the details shown, since various modifications and structural changes may be made therein without departing from the spirit of the invention and within the scope and range of equivalents of the claims.
The construction and operation of the invention, however, together with additional objects and advantages thereof will be best understood from the following description of specific embodiments when read in connection with the accompanying drawings.